First Time Visitors

Gary's daughter and her family are visiting for the week and today they took their first ride in the desert. It's always a delight to go out with first timers as you get to see everything through a new set of eyes; it reminds me of Christmas with kids.

After one of the coldest winters on record back in Michigan, I think they are considering a place here in Arizona for the winter. Here's a fixer upper with lots of character that appears to have caught their eye...

Photo of the day...

Note bee in upper right corner

Funny Car

Lightning McQueen from Disney-Pixar Cars?

Today's Photos

Obviously, I am much too young to remember Tom Mix, the silent movie cowboy, but I do recall my much older cousins telling me about him. Turns out he died in a car crash south of Florence, AZ...

The Pinal Airpark north of Tucson is where commercial aircraft go to die. Unfortunately, it is closed to the public which is a shame considering the number of huge aircraft stored there...

Lastly, if you would like to get into RVing but are on a tight budget, you may wish to consider this low cost, low maintenance option...

Desert Spring

Spring has come to the desert here in southern Arizona. An abundance of wildflowers in assorted colors are turning otherwise dull landscapes into things of beauty. In some areas, the poppies are so thick they have turned entire hillsides yellow. Even a few cacti have started to blossom...

Click on photos to enlarge

On the downside, the accompanying pollen is wreaking havoc on allergy sufferers. And, of course, now you have to look out for these bad boys...

Caution: this is a trained professional, do not attempt this at home

Real Men/Women Ride RZRs

Our goal this morning was to find some new trails that our group had not ridden (this was not as easy as it sounds as we have covered a lot of ground in the last four winters). I am proud to report that we not only met our goal, we exceeded it. However, it required traversing some really gnarly, adrenaline pumping sections. Fortunately, everyone was driving RZRs which made the impossible possible. <grin>

I wish I had more action photos but I was too busy concentrating on not careening off the side of the mountain and going up in a fiery ball of flames. Here's the "No Fear" team on top of the world...

The views from the mountain ridges were simply spectacular...

Munzee

In looking for fun ways to use gps, I came across an interesting app called Munzee. Their website will provide you with the details but in short, it is like geocaching but with some very clever twists including points for "deploying" and "capturing" Munzees. Another way to think of this app is an electronic scavenger hunt using QR codes.

After setting up a free account online and downloading the app to my smartphone, I jumped in the Jeep and drove to the two closest Munzees. It turned out they were not very far from the RV park and were placed in spots that correlated well with their Munzee Name. That's when I began to see how this app could be habit forming.

I then created my own Munzee and posted it at the entrance to the Arizonian. I am curious to see how many of my friends here in the park will find it. If you decide to try the app, let me know in the "comment" section below how you like it.

Arizonian (2014-2015)

It's hard to believe I have been here at the Arizonian four months. It seems like yesterday that I arrived. Some of the winter residents are starting to head back home so this seemed like a good time to put together a montage of this season's photos...

If you have the bandwidth, view on HD setting

Social Event of the Season

I had the good fortune to be invited to the big social event of the season here in the park, Jim & Ellen's Annual Cookout. This gala extravaganza grows in popularity every year due to the good food and company.

Ellen & friend

It's always a pleasure watching professionals at work

"Good Eats"

Hey, get a room you two

Florence Coke Ovens

I was curious about the history of the Florence Coke Ovens so I did a little Internet research. What I found has led me to believe the “coke ovens” were used to produce charcoal, not coke.

Most of the articles I read indicated that the ovens used mesquite to produce coke but they did not have enough detail or documentation to be as credible as I would have liked. This led me to look into the use of coke for smelting. What I learned is that coke is generally made from coal which is the process most steel mills use today. However, early metal refining companies also used charcoal which is made from wood. Given the abundance of mesquite in the area and the lack of coal, it seems more likely the Florence ovens used mesquite to make charcoal.

Here are excerpts from some articles that you may find interesting:

• Cochran and the Coke Ovens: Who built them: “On a hillside across the Gila River you can see the bee hived shaped charcoal kilns. Many people associate them with Cochran and call them the coke ovens but they were there before Cochran was built. It is believed that the kilns were built by the Pinal Consolidated Copper Company in 1882 to supply their smelter furnace with charcoal. The site for the kilns was four miles from the smelter. The kilns were built along the Gila River to take advantage of the supply of timber, mostly mesquite which grew on the hill sides and along the river. A newspaper report from that year reported they were paying woodchoppers $2 per cord of wood." 
• Hotter Than Mesquite: “The Arizona Highways book "Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps" by Philip Varney speculates that the five charcoal kilns were built around 1882 along the Gila River by the Pinal Consolidated Mining Company to turn mesquite into charcoal to be used in the ore smelting process. Charcoal burns hotter and longer than the mesquite wood from which it was derived. Smelters preferred coke, which is derived from coal, because it would burn even hotter and longer than charcoal. The abundance of mesquite in this Gila Valley location was exploited by the mining company in an attempt to obtain economic advantage. It should be pointed out that "Coke Ovens" is a complete misnomer and "Charcoal Kilns" would be most accurate to describe these bee hive structures.”

I’ll leave it up to the erudite readers of this blog to analyze, debate, ponder, question and make the final determination.

Walnut Canyon

We hauled our UTVs over to Battleaxe south of Superior and rode to the Coke Ovens via Walnut Canyon. After the government closed Martinez Canyon, this became my favorite scenic ride in the area...

Death defying feats...

Dick & Dona mountain climbing

Paul & Ione going where no Rhino has gone before

Gary breaking-in his new RZR

Update 3/7/15 - Dick & Dona used the telephoto lens on their camera to capture an image of what appears to be a large hawk. That nest was built in an alcove on a vertical rock face that was maybe a thousand feet high.

4 Peaks & Tonto Monument

Keith, Jayne and I drove the jeeps to the Tonto National Monument via Four Peaks to see the ancient Native American cliff dwellings. The road up the mountain from Highway 87 offers great vistas but is rough as a cob (think loose fillings). The road down the mountain to Highway 188 has been graded and is a much more pleasant ride...

That's the four peaks in the distance

At the monument you hike about a quarter mile up a relatively steep path to reach the cliff dwellings...

Location, location, location

You can walk into the dwellings

Cave Men/Women

After my Apache Tears Cave post, a group of park residents decided to ride their side-by-sides there to seek their fortune in rare gems and minerals. In as much as the weather forecast called for a high near 80 degrees today, I chose to drive over in my air conditioned jeep (this being a family oriented blog, I cannot repeat the language that was directed towards me as a result of that decision).

I stopped for breakfast in Queen Valley and discovered a group of classic car enthusiasts were there also...

Click on photos to enlarge

For you history buffs, the old Town of Pinal is located along the road to the cave. Click here for a short description of the town and the locations of the buildings and mill (only the foundations are left).

More photos...

The cave is huge

Incredible scenery everywhere you look

Queen Creek from the comfort of an air conditioned jeep

Break-In Ride

A man may forget his wife's birthday or their anniversary but he always remembers the purchase of a new vehicle. Anxious to see Gary get his new RZR dirty and add some "Arizona pinstripes" to the exterior, an elite group of trouble makers joined him for the break-in ride.

Sunny skies, warm temperatures and magnificent vistas made for a perfect day in the desert...

Here's the brain-trust getting ready to hide Mary's geocache...

The surprise-of-the-day was an owl nesting in a large saguaro cactus...

Polaris Slingshot

Gary and I went to Iron City Polaris for some reason that I cannot recall but while there, I got to sit in the new Polaris Slingshot...

It's a unique vehicle with a lot of flash but unless my friends here in the park chip-in and buy me one for my birthday, I do not see it in my future.

Oh... I remember now, Gary was picking up his new RZR 900...

Apache Tears Cave

Ron stopped by the RV to tell me about a huge cave near Picketpost Mountain that is filled with Apache Tears. With no further encouragement needed, I jumped in my trusty jeep and headed for the hills.

Along the way to the cave, you come across a metal sign that directs you to an area where old wagon wheels have cut ruts into solid rock (some of which are close to a foot deep)...

After parking at the end road, you hike several hundred yards to the cave...

In the loose gravel you will find numerous small tears but it appears you have to chisel the larger ones out of the rock walls. I met a lady who had a tear the size of small egg. Here's what I picked up in just a few minutes...

Another Great Desert Ride

If you have never ridden off-road in the Sonoran Desert, you probably cannot appreciate what a great experience it is, particularly, on a warm, sunny day without a cloud in a dark blue sky. This is my fourth winter here and I am still as fascinated as the first time.

Here's Dick making a descent down a rather steep incline look easy...

Lastly, if you have ever wondered how many guys it takes to change a drive belt on a UTV...

(hint: it looks a lot like a state road crew)

Playing Dirty

Keith and Jayne bought a new 2015 Jeep Unlimited that is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was so clean it was making my Jeep look bad. So, in order to remedy the problem, I invited them to go for a ride in the desert with me and they foolishly accepted. Now my Jeep does not look so bad...

How does one get a Jeep muddy in the desert you ask. You put Jayne behind the wheel...

Remind me not to let her borrow my Jeep

I figured a good way for them to break-in a new vehicle would be the extreme Jeep trail called "Elvis"...

And as far as you know, we rode the entire trail including the most difficult sections...

RZR 900 Warning

In the interest of full disclosure, there is one downside to getting a RZR 900 that you guys need to be aware of. You cannot keep women out of your new machine...

Hopefully, others will benefit from my experience.